3. If a Bright Spot wherein was white hair broke out abroad and covered all his skin, although the white hair continued in its place, he is clean. If a Bright Spot wherein wras a spreading broke out abroad and covered all his skin, he is clean. But with them all, if it receded from but the ends of the members, theys are unclean. If it broke out abroad and covered but part of his skin, he is unclean; if it broke out abroad and covered all his skin, he is clean.
4. Whenever, by reason of the spreading [of the Bright Spot] to the ends of the members, they have pronounced clean him that was unclean, if the spreading recedes they become again unclean. Whenever, by reason of the receding [of the leprosy] from the ends of the members, they have pro¬ nounced unclean him that was clean, if they again become covered he becomes clean, and if they again become uncovered he becomes unclean, even a hundred times.
5. Any part of the skin that can suffer uncleanness6 by reason of the leprosy-sign of a Bright Spot, can impair the breaking out abroad [of the leprosy over all his skin];7 but any part that cannot suffer uncleanness by reason of the leprosy-sign of a Bright Spot cannot impair the breaking out abroad [of the leprosy over all his skin]. Thus, if it broke out abroad and covered all his skin, but it did not cover the head or the beard, or a festering boil, burning, or blister, and the head or the beard then became bald, or the boil, burning, or blister formed a scar, he is nevertheless clean. But if it broke out abroad and covered all his skin excepting half a lentil’s space [where was quick flesh] near the head or the beard, near a boil, burning, 1 The law of circumcision overrides the prohibition (cf. above, 7') against removing the tokens of uncleanness. Cf. Ned. 311 (R. Nehemiah).
2 Lev. i3121. 2 Or that was shut up.
4 i.e. if raw flesh appeared (Lev. 1314). 5 The cases cited in paragraphs 2 and 3.
6 Thereby excluding the parts specified above, 68. 7 Whereby he becomes clean.
686 SIXTH DIVISION: TOHOROTH or blister, and the head or the beard became bald, or the boil, burning, or blister formed a scar, even if the place of the quick flesh became a Bright Spot, he is unclean; [he does not become clean] until it breaks out abroad and covers all his skin.
6. If there were two Bright Spots, the one unclean and the other clean, and [the leprosy] broke out from the one to the other, and then broke out abroad and covered all his skin, he becomes clean. [If there were two Bright Spots, each the size of half a split bean], the one on the upper lip and the other on the lower lip, or on two fingers or on the two eyelids, although when they cleave together they appear as one, he is nevertheless clean. If it broke out abroad and covered all his skin, save only a tetter, he is unclean. If1 it receded from the ends of the members leaving a kind of a tetter, he still remains clean. If it receded from the ends of the members less than the space of a lentil, R. Meir declares him unclean; but the Sages say: A tetter less than the space of a lentil is a token of uncleanness in the beginning, but it is not a token of uncleanness at the end.
7. If a man came [before the priest in the beginning] with his whole body white, he must be shut up; if, then, white hair arose he must be certified unclean; if [afterward] both hairs or one of them turned black, if both of them or one of them became short,2 if a boil adjoined both hairs or one of them, if the boil encompassed both hairs or one of them, or if they were sundered by a boil or the quick flesh of a boil, or a burning or the quick flesh of a burning, or by a tetter, and then there arose quick flesh or white hair, he is unclean; but if no quick flesh or white hair arose he is clean. But with them all if it receded from but the ends of the members, he remains as he was before. If it broke out abroad and covered but part of his skin, he is unclean; if it broke out abroad and covered all his skin, he is clean.
8. If it broke out abroad and covered all his skin at once, after that he was become clean, he is unclean; but if after he had been certified unclean, he is clean. He that is pronounced clean after that he was shut up, is exempt from the law of loosening the hair and rending the clothes,3 and also from cutting off the hair4 and from bringing the pair of birds;5 but he that is pronounced clean after that he had been certified unclean is liable to all these; and both alike convey uncleanness by entering in.6 9. If a man came [before the priest] with his whole body white, and there was upon him quick flesh of the space of a lentil, and the leprosy broke out and covered all his skin, and it afterward receded from the ends of the members, R. Ishmael says: It is as though it had receded from the ends of the members as when there had been a great Bright Spot.7 But R. Eleazar b. Azariah says: It is as though it had receded from the ends of the members as when there had been a little Bright Spot.8 10. Sometimes a man may show his leprosy-sign to the priest to his gain and sometimes he may show it to his loss. Thus if he had been certified unclean and the tokens of his uncleanness disappeared, and before he could show himself to the priest the leprosy broke out abroad and covered all his skin, he is clean; whereas if he had already shown it to the priest he would have become unclean.9 If he had a Bright Spot wherein naught else arose, 1 After being declared clean because the leprosy wholly covered him.
7 Such that covered the whole body. 8 Confined to a part of the skin.
9 See above, 81.
and before he could show himself to the priest1 the leprosy broke out abroad and covered all his skin, he is unclean; whereas if he had already shown it to the priest he would have become clean.
9. 1. A boil or a burning can be certified unclean within one week and by two tokens: by white hair or by a spreading. What is a boil? If a man suffered hurt from wood or stone or olive-peat or Tiberias water; any hurt that is not caused by fire is a boil. What is a burning? If a man was burnt by burning coal or by embers; any hurt that is caused by fire is a burning.
2. A boil and a burning cannot be included together;2 a spreading from one to the other, or from them to the skin of the flesh, or from the skin of the flesh to them, does not count as a spreading. If they fester they are clean; if they form a scale as thick as garlic peel, such is the scar of the boil spoken of in the Law3. If again they become quick flesh, although there is a cicatrix in the place thereof, they count as the skin of the flesh* 3. They asked R. Eliezer, [What befalls] if there arose on the inside of i man’s hand a Bright Spot the size of a sela, and the place thereof becomes the scar of the boil}5 He said to them, It must be shut up. They said to lim, Why?6 The place is not such that white hair can arise there; there an be no spreading there; and quick flesh7 does not render it unclean. Hie said to them, Perchance it will contract and spread again. They said to lim, But does not the question8 still stand even if [the scar contracts and] Its place is but the space of a split bean? He said to them, I have heard no radition about this. R. Judah b. Bathyra said to him, I will expound it. Hie said to him, If it be to confirm the words of the Sages, be it so. He said o him, Perchance another boil may arise outside it, and spread into it. Hie said to him, Thou art a great Sage in that thou hast confirmed the words >f the Sages.
10. 1. Seal Is7 can be certified unclean within two weeks and by two tokens: >y yellow thin hair or by a spreading. ‘By yellow thin hair’ — if it is so iiseased that it is short. So R. Akiba. R. Johanan b. Nuri says: Even though t is long. R. Johanan b. Nuri said: What does the expression mean when hey say, ‘This stick is thin’, or ‘This reed is thin’? — does it mean that it is musually thin and short, or10 unusually thin and long? R. Akiba said to lim, Before we learn from the reed let us learn from the hair! — [for if we ay,] ‘The hair of such-a-one is thin’, ‘thin’ means that it is unusually thin nd short, not that it is unusually thin and long.
2. Yellow thin hair betokens uncleanness whether it is clustered together >r dispersed, whether it is encompassed or unencompassed, whether it came fteru or before. So R. Judah. R. Simeon says: It betokens uncleanness inly if it came after. R. Simeon said: It is a logical inference: if white hair against whose effect other hair cannot afford protection)12 betokens un- ileanness only if it comes after, must we not infer that yellow thin hair against whose effect other hair can afford protection) betokens uncleanness 1 Who would have shut him up.
1 To make up the space of a split bean. J Lev. 13”.
I 4 Lev. 1 3*. 5 The scar covers the entire Bright Spot.
8 The tokens of uncleanness cannot arise there.
j 7 This is not prescribed (Lev. 13'*®- *• ®) as a token of uncleanness in a boil or burning.
8 Why should it be shut up?
* See above, 3’. 10 Variant: and not, rather,...II The scall. 12 In the case of leprosy symptoms in ‘the skin of the flesh’; whereas n a scall in the head or beard two black hairs nullify the yellow hairs (Lev. J3S1- ”).
SIXTH DIVISION: TOHOROTH only if it comes after? R. Judah says: If ever it was needful to say ‘If it comes after’ [Scripture] has said ‘If it comes after’; but the scall, whereof it is said, And there be in it no yellow hair,1 betokens uncleanness whether it came before or after.
3. Any [black hair]2 that grows up affords protection against the yellow hair and against the spreading, whether it is clustered together or dis¬ persed, whether it is encompassed or unencompassed. Any [black hair]2 that is left affords protection against the yellow hair and against the spread¬ ing, whether it is clustered together or dispersed, or whether it is encom¬ passed; but it does not afford protection if it is at the side [of the scall] unless it is distant by two hairs from the surrounding growth of hair. If one of the hairs was yellow and the other black, or if one w*as yellow and the other white, they do not afford protection.
4. If a yellow hair was there before the scall it is clean. R. Judah declares it unclean. R. Eliezer b. Jacob says: It neither betokens unclean¬ ness nor affords protection. R. Simeon says: Aught in the scall that is not a token of uncleanness is a token of cleanness in the scall.
5. How is he shaven3 that has a scall? They shave the space outside it but leave [a circle] two hairs [deep] next to it so that it shall be manifest if it spreads. If he was certified unclean because of yellow hair and the yellow hair disappeared and other yellow hair appeared (so, too, if there was a spreading, whether in the beginning, or by the end of the first week, or by the end of the second week, or even after he had been pronounced clean), he remains as he was before. If he was certified unclean because of a spreading, and the spreading disappeared and appeared again (so, too, if there was yellow hair, whether by the end of the first week, or by the end of the second week, or even after he had been pronounced clean), he remains as he was before.
6. If there were two scalls side by side and a line of hair separated them, if a gap appeared in one place the scall is unclean; but if in two places, it is clean.4 How great should be the gap? The space of two hairs. If there was a gap in one place the size of a split bean, it is unclean.
7. If there were two scalls one within the other, and a line of hair separated them, and there was a gap in one place, the [inner] scall is un¬ clean; if in two places, it is clean. How great should be the gap? The space of two hairs. If there was a gap in one place the size of a split bean, it is clean.
8. If a man had a scall wherein was yellow hair, it is unclean; if black hair grew therein, it is clean; even if the black hair disappeared again it remains clean. R. Simeon b. Judah in the name of R. Simeon says: Any scall that has once been pronounced clean can never again become unclean. R. Simeon says: Any yellow hair that has once been pronounced clean can never again become unclean.
9. If a man had a scall the size of a split bean and it spread over his whole head, he is clean.5 The head and the beard cannot hinder one another [from being pronounced clean].6 So R. Judah. But R. Simeon says: They < Lev. 13**. 1 If there are not less than two hairs. 3 See Lev. 13“.
♦ The two scalls are then deemed a single scall, and the residue of the dividing hair is a token of cleanness in the scall (Lev. 1 351).
s Or over his whole beard; on the analogy of the Bright Spot that breaks out abroad and covers the whole of his skin, whereby he becomes clean.
6 The scall is to be accounted clean if it spreads only over the whole head, or only over the whole beard.
can hinder one another. R. Simeon said: It is a logical inference: if the skin of the face and the skin of the body (which have that which keeps them asunder)1 hinder one another, must we not infer that the head and the beard (which have naught that keeps them asunder) hinder one another? [A scall in] the head and [a scall in] the beard cannot be included together, nor can a scab spread from the one to the other. What counts as the beard? From the bend of the jaw to the knob of the windpipe.2 10. Scalp-baldness or forehead-baldness3 may be certified unclean within two weeks and by two tokens: by quick flesh or by a spreading. What counts as baldness? If a man had eaten neshem 4 or smeared himself with neshem, or suffered a wound from which hair can no more grow. What counts as scalp-baldness? [Lack of hair] from the crown sloping backwards to the protruding bone of the neck. What counts as forehead-baldness? [Lack of hair] from the crown sloping forwards over against the hair above [the face]. Scalp-baldness and forehead-baldness cannot be included together, nor can they spread from one into the other. R. Judah says: If there is hair between them they cannot be included together, but if there is none they can be included together.
11. 1. All garments5 may contract uncleanness from leprosy-signs, except¬ ing those of gentiles.6 If a man bought garments from gentiles [the leprosy- signs in them] must be inspected [as if they had arisen] anew. The hides of [creatures that live in] the sea cannot contract uncleanness from leprosy-signs, but if a man joined7 to them aught that grows on land, even if it is but a thread or a cord, yet something that is susceptible to unclean¬ ness, they, too, become susceptible.
2. If camel’s hair and sheep’s wool have been hackled together8 and the greater part is camel’s hair, they cannot contract uncleanness from leprosy- signs; but if the greater part is sheep’s wool, they can contract unclean¬ ness from leprosy-signs; if they are in equal parts, they can contract uncleanness from leprosy-signs. So, too, if flax and hemp have been hackled together.9 3. Coloured hides and garments cannot contract uncleanness from leprosy-signs; houses,10 whether they are coloured or not coloured, can contract uncleanness from leprosy-signs. So R. Meir. R. Judah says: [In this] hides are like to houses. R. Simeon says: Such as are coloured by heaven can contract uncleanness but such as are coloured by man cannot contract uncleanness.
4. If in a garment the warp was coloured but the woof was white, or if the woof was coloured but the warp was white, all is according to what is the more apparent. Garments contract uncleanness by an intense green or an intense red colour. If [the leprosy-sign] was green and it spread out red, or if it was red and it spread out green, it is unclean. If its colour changed and [afterward] spread, or changed but did not spread, it is ac¬ counted as if it had not changed. R. Judah says: It must be inspected anew.
5. If [the leprosy-sign] continued unchanged throughout the first [week] it must be washed and kept shut up; if it continued unchanged throughout the second week it must be burned; if it spread, whether in the first week 1 The growth of hair on the chin and head. 2 Cf. Hull. io4. 3 Lev. I341)t.
4 Or nesem. A drug used, internally or externally, to hinder the growth of hair.
8 And a garment woven from them. 9 Cf. Kil. 91. 10 Lev. 1434.
690 SIXTH DIVISION: TOHOROTH or in the second, it must be burnt. If it was faint in the beginning, R. Ishmael says: It must be washed and kept shut up. But the Sages say: It does not require this.1 If it grew fainter after the first week it must be washed and kept shut up; if it grew fainter after the second week it may be torn out and what is torn out [alone] need be burnt, and a patch must be put thereon. R. Nehemiah says: A patch need not be put thereon.
6. If the leprosy-sign came again [elsewhere] in the garment, the patch is free;2 if it came again in the patch, the [whole] garment must be burnt. If a man used [part of] what had been shut up to patch a garment that was clean, and the leprosy-sign came again in the first garment, he must burn the patch. If the leprosy-sign came again in the patch, the first garment must be burnt, and the patch serves the second garment [only] while the tokens are under inspection3 [and then it must be burnt].4 7. In a summer garments that has coloured and white checks [the leprosy- sign] may spread from one [white check] to another.6 They asked R. Eliezer, What if [the white colour] is on one check only? He replied, I have heard no tradition about this. R. Judah b. Bathyra said to him, I will expound it. He said to him, If it be to confirm the words of the Sages, be it so. He said to him, Perchance it will remain unchanged therein for two weeks, and what remains unchanged in garments throughout two weeks is unclean.7 He said to him, Thou art a great Sage in that thou hast confirmed the words of the Sages. A spreading that adjoins [the first leprosy-sign counts as a spreading] however small it is; if it is distant, it must be the size of a split bean; and if it returns it must be the size of a split bean.
8. The warp and woof as soon as they are woven may contract unclean¬ ness from leprosy-signs. R. Judah says: The warp, after it has been boiled; the woof, forthwith; and bundles of flax, after they have been bleached. How much must there be in a coil [of thread] for it to be able to contract uncleanness from leprosy-signs? Enough wherewith to weave a piece three fingerbreadths square, either warp or woof, even if it is all warp or all woof. If they were broken threads it cannot contract uncleanness from leprosy- signs. R. Judah says: Even if the thread was broken only in one place and it was knotted together it cannot contract uncleanness.
9. If the thread was wound from one coil to another, or from one spool to another or from the upper beam to the lower (so, too, with the two wings of a shirt) if a leprosy-sign appeared on the one, the other remains clean. If it was in the shedded weft® or in the standing warp, these can forthwith contract uncleanness from leprosy-signs. R. Simeon says: Only if the warp is closely ordered can it contract uncleanness.
10. If [the leprosy -sign appeared] in the standing warp the web is clean. If it appeared in the web the standing warp is clean. If it appeared in a sheet the fringes must be burnt [also], but if it appeared in the fringes the sheet remains clean. If the leprosy-sign appeared in a shirt, the hems thereof can be set free even if they are of purple wool.
11. Whatsoever is susceptible to corpse-uncleanness though not sus- 1 But it is accounted clean. 1 If the rest of the garment needs to be burnt.
3 It, together with the second garment, is shut up, to see whether the leprosy sign spreads in the second garment. * Cf. below, 13*.
5 Also explained as a patchwork curtain.
6 Though coloured checks intervened and the combined space of the affected white checks can be included together to determine whether the colour has spread or grown fainter. ’ Lev. 13“. * Cf. Kel. ai*.
ceptible to rntWras-uncIeanness,1 can contract uncleanness from leprosy- signs — like the sail of a ship, a curtain, the forehead-band of a hair-net, the wrappings of scrolls, a girdle, the straps of a shoe or sandal; if they are as wide as a split bean, they can contract uncleanness from leprosy-signs. If the leprosy-sign appeared in a thick cloak, R. Eliezer b. Jacob says: It remains clean unless it appears in the texture and the soft [surface] wool. A water-skin or shepherd’s leather wallet are examined in the manner in which they are carried,2 and a spreading is so accounted whether it be from its inner to its outer side, or from its outer to its inner side.
12. If a garment that had been shut up was confused with others, all are accounted clean. If it was cut up and made into woollen shreds it becomes clean and use may be made of it. But if a garment that had been certified unclean was confused with others all are accounted unclean. If it was cut up and made into woollen shreds, it is [still] unclean and no use may be made of it.
12. 1. All houses can contract uncleanness from leprosy-signs excepting those of gentiles. If a man bought houses from gentiles [the leprosy-signs in them] must be inspected [as if they had arisen] anew. A round house or a three-cornered house or a house built on a ship or on a raft or on four beams, cannot contract uncleanness from leprosy signs. But if it was four¬ sided, even if it was built on four pillars, it can contract uncleanness.
2. If a house has one of its sides overlaid with marble, or one with rock, or one with bricks, or one with earth, it is not susceptible to uncleanness [from leprosy-signs]. If a house had not in it stones and wood and earth,3 and a leprosy-sign appeared in it, and they afterward brought into it stones and wood and earth, it remains clean. So, too, if a garment had not in it woven work three fingerbreadths square, and a leprosy-sign appeared in it, and there was afterward woven into it a piece three fingerbreadths square, it remains clean. A house cannot contract uncleanness from leprosy-signs unless there is in it stones and wood and earth.
3. How many stones must there be in it? R. Ishmael says: Four. R. Akiba says: Eight. For R. Ishmael used to say: [The leprosy-sign] must appear two split beans in size on two stones or on one stone.4 R. Akiba says: It must appear two split beans in size on two stones,4 and not on one stone. R. Eleazar b. Simeon says: It must appear two split beans in size on two stones on two walls at a corner, and it must be two split beans in length and one in breadth.
4. Of wood4 there must be as much as suffices to set under the lintel. R. Judah says: Enough to make the support5 at the back of the lintel. Of earth there must be enough to fill up the space between one row of stones6 and another. The walls of a cattle-stall or partition-walls cannot contract uncleanness from leprosy-signs. [Houses in] Jerusalem and [in places] outside the Land [of Israel] cannot contract uncleanness from leprosy- signs.7 2 Those parts are deemed joined together (so that leprosy-signs on various parts can be included together to make up the prescribed bulk that betokens uncleanness) which are in contact when the bag is carried, even though they lie apart when it is not carried.
5 Lit. ‘sandal’. A block of wood placed to protect the lintel against the knocking of the door. 6 So Tif. Yis. Others ‘boards’; and so Tif. Yis. in Shab. 87.
" Since it is written, ‘Which I give to you for a possession’ (Lev. 1431), which excludes 692 SIXTH DIVISION: TOHOROTH 5. How do they fulfil the inspection of a house? Then he that owneth the house shall come and tell the priest, saying, There seemeth to me to be as it were a plague in the house.1 Even if he was a learned Sage and knew of a truth that it was a leprosy-sign, he may not decide and say, ‘A leprosy-sign has been seen of me in my house’, but [only], There seemeth to me to be as it were a plague in the house. And the priest shall command that they empty the house before the priest go in to see the plague, that all that is in the house be not made unclean; and afterward the priest shall go in to see the house; even bundles of wood and even bundles of reeds2 [must be taken out]. So R. Judah. R. Simeon says: That is [only] a business for such as have no occupation. R. Meir said: And which of his goods would it render un¬ clean? If thou wouldest say, ‘His articles of wood or of cloth or of metal’, these he may immerse and they become clean. For what has the Law taken thought? For his earthenware vessels,3 even his cruse and his ewer.4 If the Law’ thus takes thought for that property of a man that is of least w’orth, how much more for property that he prizes most! And if for his property how much more for the life of his sons and daughters! And if for what be¬ longs to the wicked how much more for what belongs to the righteous!
6. He does not go5 within his own house to shut up [the other house], or inside the house wherein is the leprosy-sign to shut it up; but he stands at the door of the house wherein is the leprosy-sign, and [there] shuts it up, for it is written, Then the priest shall go out of the house to the door of the house and shut up the house seven days* And he shall come at the end of the week and inspect it, and if it has spread, then the priest shall command that they take out the stones in which the plague is and cast them into an unclean place without the city...and they shall take other stones and put them in the place of those stones, and he shall take other mortar and shall plaister the house. He may not take stones from the one side and bring them to the other; or earth from one side and bring it to the other, or lime from any¬ where. He may not bring one stone in place of two, or two in place of one, but he must bring two in the place of two, or in the place of three or in the place of four. From this verse7 they have said: Woe to the wicked, woe to his neighbour! — they both must take out the stones, they both scrape the walls, and they both must bring the [new] stones;8 but he alone brings the earth, for it is written, And he shall take other mortar and plaister the house; his fellow does not join with him in the plastering.